Market for SD Cards to Reach $21.3 Billion by 2018

Global Industry Analysts, Inc. released of a report on Secure Digital (SD) Memory Cards markets.

The global market for Secure Digital (SD) Memory Cards is forecast to reach $21.3 billion by the year 2018, driven by urgent requirement for scalability, higher speed and storage capacity, portability and ease of use.

The market is primarily sustained by heavy demand from smartphones as well as basic mobile handsets that lack sufficient memory capabilities. In terms of growth, mobile sector with the Micro SD format will witness faster growth vis-à-vis the digital imaging market for secure digital (SD) standard card format, given the different life cycles stages of the devices.

The memory card is rapidly becoming the preferred form factor for flash storage cards, because of its easy removability, small size and high performance.

The SD technology is employed by over 400 brands across numerous product categories and over 8,000 models, making it the de-facto industry standard. SD memory cards have been able to meet the requirements of high-end consumer devices.

The market is typically fragmented based on format/size into Micro SD format and the large SD standard format. The third category, namely the Mini SD format, is gradually exiting the arena in several high storage capacity driven markets.

The SD cards market is driven predominantly by smartphones as well as basic mobile handsets that lack sufficient memory capabilities. The SD standard format aimed at the imaging market is a relatively mature market with numerous devices already in usage in the market. On the other hand, the mobile market is still evolving with growth opportunities waiting to be explored.

Smartphones, tablets, and SSDs are some of the major growth drivers for the embedded flash memory cards market. Robust consumer demand in the smartphone segment is driving unit sales of SD memory cards. The capacity and writing speed of NAND devices is developing at a frenetic pace.

With the increasing integration of NAND memory chips on a single silicon wafer, the overall production cost per bit is falling steeply. Demand is highly price elastic, with each reduction in unit price per gigabyte multiplying manifold the overall scope of applications of memory cards. As a result, these embedded flash cards are finding applications in an expanding range of devices including eReaders, cameras, computing devices, media players, smartphones, tablets, ultrabooks, USB drives and video cameras. However, the emergence of a new generation of mobile devices with high built-in memory storage capacity is expected to be a major threat to SD card makers in the segment.

The implementation of the Micro SD and SD Standard varies based on regional and cultural factors such as consumer spending power. Typically, the SD standard dominates in developed markets, while Micro SD enjoys popularity in emerging markets.

In developed markets such as the US, consumers can afford multiple devices and often purchase separate camera and mobile phone at the same time. Subsequently, the prospect for SD cards is based on affordability and lifestyle. The Micro SD format is more suitable for emerging nations, especially Asia, where the digital imaging industry is at a different development level as compared to developed countries. Although the US market is declining and saturated, the market dominates the digital imaging category for SD cards.

In terms of growth rate, the mobile sector with the Micro SD format is projected to witness faster growth in the digital imaging market as the market for these devices is presently at different stages of the product development life cycle, with each offering a unique opportunity for lateral movement and growth.

The aggressive increase in smartphone shipments over the last few years led to an upsurge in the number of cell phone handsets with MicroSD slots. The world market for cell phones is now in a phase of continuous development and expansion, thereby offering enormous growth prospects for the evolving SD memory cards market. The cell phones category represents the fastest growing end-use market at a strong CAGR of over 20% through 2018. On a similar note, the rising shipments of smartphones with MicroSD slots are expected to translate into high demand for SD memory cards in the near future. In the imaging market, the SD standard format remains the core card type for digital cameras. By sheer size, the market for digital still cameras represents the largest application area for SD memory cards.

Europe represents the largest regional market for SD memory cards market, amassing a substantial share of the global market, as stated by the research report. Regions such as Asia and Western Europe have successfully implemented SD cards and are exhibiting rapid growth rates. Evolving countries such as China, India and Russia are markets that offer major prospects for SD cards. AsiaPac buoyed by tremendous growth potential of markets such as China and India is projected to surge ahead at the overall fastest CAGR of 20.5% through 2018. The Indian market for consumer storage device markets, comprising external HDDs, flash drives and flash cards, is continuing on the path of strong growth owing to increasing penetration and robust sales of mobile phones and digital cameras.

Key players profiled in the report include ADATA Technology Co., Ltd., Apacer Technology, Inc., Dane-Elec Memory SA, Delkin Devices, Inc., Duracell, EDGE Tech Corporation, Eye-Fi, Inc., Kingston Technology company, Inc., KINGMAX Semiconductor, Inc., MagicRAM, Inc., Panasonic Corporation, Power Quotient International Co., Ltd., SanDisk Corporation, Transcend Information, Inc.

The research report titled Secure Digital (SD) Memory Cards: A Global Strategic Business Report ($4,600, 637 pages) provides a market overview, vendor innovations, current market trends, growth drivers, recent industry activity, and profiles of major/niche global market participants. It provides annual sales estimates and projections for the years 2010 through 2018 in value terms for geographic markets including the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, AsiaPac, Latin America, and rest of world. Key application segments analyzed include cell phones, digital camcorders, digital still cameras and others. The study also provides historic data for an insight into market evolution over the period 2004 through 2009.